The recent January State of Play had a lot of surprises, especially if you're a Hideo Kojima fan. On top of an extended look at Death Stranding 2, which looks even more Kojima than we would've anticipated, we got confirmation about his upcoming project following the sequel to Sam's adventure - an action-espionage game in partnership with Sony.
For those eager to see the legendary game developer go back to where it all started, the State of Play closed out with an announcement by Herman Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, and Hideo Kojima, head of Kojima Productions, stating that this upcoming action-espionage game will go into production as soon as the studio is done with Death Stranding 2, which is scheduled to release in 2025.
Kojima has made it clear that his ambitious goal with the development of the game, codenamed Physint, is to completely blur the line between videogames and film.
It is an interactive game, but it is also a movie at the same time in terms of look, story, theme, cast, acting, fashion, and sound
Kojima going for bombastic cinematic experiences is not new. Even from his Metal Gear Solid days, one could tell the game developer was enamoured by the prospect of filmmaking just as much as he was by creating unique gameplay experiences, with his first outing outside of Konami, Death Stranding, being heavily criticised by some for being too "cutscene heavy."
The Physint video announcement ended with a panoramic shot of the Columbia Pictures studio lot, heavily implying that Sony's expertise in tech and gaming will not be the only things that Kojima will make use of in this partnership.
Before we get to see what Physint is about, Xbox players will get to check out OD (Overdose), an exclusive title for Microsoft Kojima is working on with the help of horror auteur Jordan Peele and starring Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. It's also being described as a movie/game hybrid that will have some sort of cloud integration.